While it may go under the radar sometimes, the Super Middleweight division in boxing has featured some of the top talents and the greatest fighters of all time.
The 168 lb weight class allows a combination of fighting styles, whether it be hard-hitting knockout artists or quick and wispy jab-and-movers, looking to win the war of attrition to take home the gold.
We’ve ranked the top five men to compete in the Super Middleweight division, including two men who retired undefeated and a four-weight champion who remains a boxing icon, long after his retirement.
Honorary mention: Chris Eubank
In the 1990s, few fighters were as dangerous in the ring at Super Middleweight as the soft-spoken and gentlemanly Chris Eubank.
Behind his “British gentleman” exterior was a tough fighter with an iron chin, able to withstand almost anything and come back with a vicious attack of his own.
He won the world title at Middleweight and Super Middleweight, but it was at the latter that his biggest fights and best performances occurred.
Eubank beat Michael Watson with a stunning twelfth-round knockout in their rematch to win the WBO Super Middleweight title, a belt he held for four years, and through 14 incredible title defenses.
The most notable of these was his second fight against Nigel Benn in 1993, where the pair fought to a twelve-round draw at Old Trafford in one of the biggest all-British fights in boxing history.
5. Canelo Alvarez
The Mexican fighter has impressed in multiple weight classes, but his current run as the unified Super Middleweight champion may be one of his best.
Canelo Alvarez has remained undefeated at 168 lbs since beating Rocky Fielding to win his first Super Middleweight title.
His victims include top names like Billy Joe Saunders, William Scull and Gennady Golovkin, a who’s who of the top names in the division.
The iconic Mexican fighter, who has amassed 63 wins in his incredible career, is the highest-paid man in boxing today, owing to his incredible dominance in this weight class over the past near-decade.
4. Carl Froch
Carl Froch’s defining moment was when he knocked out George Groves in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, but to get to that point, he had one of the best careers in Super Middleweight history.
“The Cobra” won multiple world championships in the Super Middleweight division, including the WBC, IBF, and WBA versions of the world title.
Froch was a throwback fighter; never the flashiest, but filled with grit and determination with one straightforward goal – knock the other man out.
This served him well, as Froch won 33 of his 35 fights in his career, with 24 of them coming via knockout – including that fateful night in Wembley Stadium against Groves.
If you want to know more about it, just ask Froch – he’ll happily tell you!
3. Roy Jones Jr
Roy Jones Jr is rightfully considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, winning world titles in four weight classes, including the WBA Heavyweight championship, in a glittering career.
However, his greatness also extends to Super Middleweight, which was one of the four weight classes in which he found himself impressing and holding world titles.
Jones Jr first won the world title in that weight class with a twelve-round victory over James Toney in 1995. The fight pitted two impressive, undefeated fighters against each other for the first time, although Jones Jr struggled to come down from 180 lbs to just 160 lbs for this clash.
He managed to knock Toney down during the fight before winning via the judges’ scorecards, kicking off a title run that only ended when Jones Jr was forced to vacate the belt when moving up to Light Heavyweight.
While his career may be defined usually by his exploits in other weight classes, there is no doubt that Roy Jones Jr was one of the great Super Middleweights in boxing history.
2. Andre Ward
Throughout his 32 undefeated fights, the Super Middleweight division belonged to Andre Ward from the late 2000s and into the 2010s.
The American fighter used his incredible technical skills and unmatched discipline to rise to the top of the Super Middleweight division and stayed there for almost a decade before retiring.
Ward wasn’t known for his explosive knockouts, although he did have his fair share of spectacular finishes. Instead, he fought intelligently to neutralize his opponent’s strength, commanding the pace of a fight and winning the war of attrition by adapting his game to his victims.
His breakout came during the Super Six World Boxing Classic, where he beat Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, and Froch to become the WBA, WBC, and The Ring Super Middleweight champion in impressive fashion.
Ward also appeared in “Creed” and its sequel, playing boxer Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler; the first appearance while he was still an active boxer.
1. Joe Calzaghe
There is nobody in the Super Middleweight division who has dominated throughout his entire career as much as Joe Calzaghe did.
Calzaghe ended his career with a 46-0 record, just three wins behind the legendary Rocky Marciano. However, he impressed in his own right, forging his own legacy that may never be topped in his weight class.
The nickname “The Pride of Wales” was apt for this Welshman of Italian heritage. Calzaghe won the WBO Super Middleweight title from Eubank in 1997 and went on to hold it right the way through until the end of his career in 2008.
This 11-year stretch saw him beat legends of the ring like Jones Jr, Bernard Hopkins, and Mikkel Kessler, adapting his game for each opponent as his body slowed throughout the years.
While he was often overlooked on the global stage and remains underrated despite his incredible career, Calzaghe retired undefeated in 2008 with an unblemished record and the acknowledgment of being the greatest Super Middleweight in boxing history.